


Stories From the Time of Corypheus

by SaibraRutherford (ScottishVix)



Series: Once We Were [8]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-17 17:12:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9334688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScottishVix/pseuds/SaibraRutherford
Summary: Random one-shots and prompts from myTumblrset in theLove in the Time of Corypheusuniverse. I'll do my best to keep them in some sort of chronological order, but I make no promises...





	1. Pillow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the prompt: _Imagine person B of your otp uses person A as a pillow_ from [rhetoricalrogue](http://archiveofourown.org/users/rhetoricalrogue/pseuds/rhetoricalrogue)

Cullen had always risen with the dawn. When he was a child, it was expected that he would be up early to help his parents with the chores on the farm. As a Templar, it was just one of his many duties. As the Commander of the Inquisition’s army, it was the example he wanted to set for the men and women he commanded. No, waking as the sky began to lighten was a familiar part of his routine. What was unfamiliar was the heavy weight on his chest.

Cracking his eyes, last night came back to him. The Inquisitor – Saibra – had gotten drunk and dragged some of her friends to waken him with their singing. After escorting her back to her tower rooms, she had begged him to stay. He shouldn't have, should have considered her reputation. But she had been drunk, tearful and upset, the role they had thrust on her weighing heavily. How could he resist her pleading?

He had settled her under the covers, lying next to her on top of them, but sometime in the night she had wiggled out of them and crawled on top of him. She looked so peaceful, the sharp angles of her face softened with her hair down. He had seen her like that so rarely. As the Inquisitor, she was cool, professional and so put together. It was strange to see her hair loose and mussed from sleep but, at the same time, it was exactly as he had imagined. Maybe, now they were together, he could see her like this more often. 

Carefully, lest he wake her, he raised one hand and trailed his fingers through the chestnut waves. It was as soft and silky as he had imagined. Though the smell of Qunari liquor from her breath wasn’t something that would have ever imagined. Nor was the way his other arm was going numb trapped underneath Saibra’s weight.

The dawn bell roused him a little further. He should leave. Saibra was the Inquisitor and the daughter of a noble house, even if she was a mage. Her reputation was precious and if he was caught leaving her rooms… he wasn’t sure whether he dreaded the scandal or Josephine’s scolding more. 

He tried to gently manoeuvre out from under Saibra, but the arm draped over him clung tighter and she buried her nose into his neck. “Nice pillow,” she muttered, not opening her eyes. “Stay.” Her breath on his neck made him shiver with a longing for something he had not wanted in a very long time, even as he had to stifle a chuckle at her ordering him about like he was her pet mabari. 

“This pillow has a job to do elsewhere,” he whispered before pressing a kiss to her hair.

“Nuh-uh.” Saibra’s voice was slurred with sleep. “My pillow.”

Cullen was certain by now that she wasn’t exactly awake. “Sorry, sweetling. Duty calls.” He gently but firmly extracted his chest and arm out from under her. Perched on the side of the bed, he watched as she flopped over onto her back and gave a gentle (and very unladylike snore) while he rubbed the feeling back into his arm. Padding quietly across the room he found a pitcher of water on a chair near the fireplace and a tankard on one of the bookshelves. He filled the tankard and left both on the table by the bed. When she truly woke, Saibra was going to have one monster of a hangover.

Right before he left the room, Cullen turned to gaze at the woman, still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, snoring softly in the large bed. The pins and needles in his arm and any rebuke from Josie would be worth it, he decided. _Being Saibra Trevelyan’s pillow isn’t so bad._


	2. Friends with Big Noses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompts, “I was just kind of hoping that you’d, y’know…fall in love with me” and “If someone gets nosy, just shoot ‘em.” “Shoot them?” “Politely.” For [littlesnowarrow](http://archiveofourown.org/users/littlesnowarrow/pseuds/littlesnowarrow).
> 
> It was REALLY hard to come up with an idea that combined these two. I hope I managed successfully.

Saibra ducked out of her tent, sealed parchment tight in her hand. She caught Lissa’s eye and the scout hurried over with a smile.

“We got lucky, your Worship. Caught a fennec having a drink right outside camp.”

“Oh, good,” Sai grinned back. “I’ll attach the letter if you offer the food?”

Between them, they managed to get the note onto Baron Plucky’s leg and the bird away without any bloodshed. Saibra was making her way back to her tent when Varric called out, “Hey, Duchess, get your letter away to Curly alright? No missing fingers?”

Sai could feel her face flush. “What letter to Cullen, Varric?”

The dwarf strolled towards her, cocky as ever. “The one you just sent with the very unsubtle seal. Come on, you didn't expect that none of us would notice?”

“Do you have to be so blighted _nosey_?” she hissed at her friend. 

“I’m just disappointed,” he smirked cheerfully. “I was just kind of hoping that you’d, y’know…fall in love with me.”

Saibra felt the red flush – and all other colour – drain from her face. Until Varric howled with laughter at her. “You and Curly are so easy to tease.” Her face was flushing again. “No offence, Duchess, but the shy blushing maid isn't my type.” His laughter died, but his smile stayed wide and warm. “We’re all happy for you both. Curly had a shit time in Kirkwall and if the rumours are true an even shittier time before that. If you make each other happy, then we're happy.”

Sai's smile softened. “Thank you, Varric. I am happy.”

She turned again to re-enter her tent when Varric called out again. “Oh, Duchess?” She looked back at him. “If someone gets too nosy, just shoot ‘em.” 

Her eyes widened again. “Shoot them?” 

“Politely.” He wiggled his fingers in imitation of her casting. “Guarantees they’ll not be so nosey again.” 

Sai shook her head and ducked into the tent, smiling at Varric's raucous laughter echoing through the camp outside.


	3. Counting Bears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt “When I said ‘Whatever helps you sleep at night.’ I didn’t mean this.” from [rhetoricalrogue](http://archiveofourown.org/users/rhetoricalrogue/pseuds/rhetoricalrogue)

“Hey, Boss!” 

Saibra groaned quietly as Bull called to her from outside her tent. She’d finally been beginning to doze off, worn out from the trek halfway across Ferelden and the simmering anger she'd been keeping under wraps until she could get home and safely vent it to Cullen.

Rolling off her camp bed, she stuck her head out of the tent flap. Keeping her voice as level as possible she smiled politely up at her huge friend. “What can I help you with, Bull?”

Bull lowered his voice, his casual tone belied by the concern in his lone eye. “Cassandra stormed outta camp about half an hour ago. Want me and Dorian to go looking for her?”

Cassandra had been quiet and withdrawn since they began the journey back from Caer Oswin, radiating doubt and quiet fury the whole way. Two days out from Skyhold and things weren't improving. The Seeker hadn’t been sleeping, taking double watches and burning the lantern in her tent reading that damnable book Lucius had given her the rest of the night. This morning Sai had told Cassandra to do whatever she needed to do to get her some sleep. Unless she wanted the Inquisitor to slip something in her tea. 

“I'll go,” Saibra sighed, ducking back into her tent to grab her staff. “I'll send up a bolt if I need back up, so keep your eyes open.”

“No problem, Boss.”

***

Sai had only been walking for about 10 minutes when she heard annoyed grunting and Cassandra’s angry yells. Calling lighting to her fingertips, she began to run, stumbling to halt when she rounded a hill and found Cassandra. 

The Seeker was circling what was, for the Hinterlands, an unusually small bear. But rather that striking with her sword, which was still firmly in its scabbard, her friend would duck behind the bear and give it a solid punch before rolling out of the way as the bear swing round. Saibra shot a bolt of lightning at it before casting barrier on herself and ducking behind a tree.

“What in the Maker’s name are you _doing_ , Cassandra?” she yelled at her friend, as the Seeker drew the bear’s attention again with another punch.

“Taking up Sera’s challenge. I thought it would tire me out.” Saibra ducked back out from behind the tree again in time to see Cassandra backing away as the bear swung back around to her. She set the bear’s tail alight with a well-placed fireball, allowing Cassandra to make a solid punch to its ear. 

“When I said ‘Whatever helps you sleep at night.’ I didn’t mean this.” She glared at her friend as she darted behind another tree to get a better angle. “Can we please finish this and go back to camp?”

“Gladly!” As the bear turned again towards its burning backside, Cassandra silently drew her sword from the scabbard on her hip and plunged it deep into the bear’s throat.

They took a few moments in silence to clean Cassandra’s sword and catch their breath before heading back towards camp. 

“At least tell me it worked?”

“I believe so. But if you tell Varric I swear I will find another snake to put in your bed.”


	4. The Monsters Under the Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My first ever prompt! Eeep! But as soon as [littlesnowarrow](http://archiveofourown.org/users/littlesnowarrow/pseuds/littlesnowarrow) messaged me with it last night, I knew what I was going to write.
> 
> “Do you know what my mom says about monsters under the bed? That sometimes they’re more afraid of us than we are of them, and if we don’t scare them, they will protect us from bad dreams.”

Cullen was halfway up a flight of stairs when the whole of Adamant fortress began to shake uncontrollably. He had to grab onto the stone balustrade to keep himself from tumbling backwards. Gripping on for dear life he was looking directly at his hands when the runes glowing on his silverite cuff flared and went dark.

He barely recognised the anguished scream as his own. He hauled himself up the stairs, raced around the corner and into his worst nightmare. The body of a woman he recognised as Warden Commander Clarel was lying broken and bloody at the edge of what had once been a bridge between two wings of the fortress. As he watched, the dragon rose up in the space where the bridge had been. It let out a long, angry screech before dropping a body at his feet and turning and flying off into the night. 

Saibra’s body.

This wasn’t how it ended. She had fallen into the Fade with her friends and come out again injured and ill but alive. They had come back to Skyhold together. She couldn’t be dead. He began to scream.

_Uncle Cully! Wake up! Please!_

Cullen sat bolt upright, panting as if he’d run all the way from Adamant to Skyhold. It took a moment to orient himself. He was in the Inquisitor’s Tower, on the couch in the rooms he now shared with Saibra. And Marie was standing by his head, eyes wide with fright. Seeing he was awake she flung her arms around his neck.

Cullen remembered now. He had moved from his office to their rooms after the noon bell. The excuse was that he was going to be teaching Marie about the Second Blight and had wanted to check his memory of the history before meeting her in the rooms assigned to Vastra and her children later. The real reason had been the headache caused by lack of sleep. 

He had not expected his nightmares to disappear as the lyrium filtered out of his body, but they were more intense now. Saibra would probably receive Leliana’s summons tonight and start the return journey from the Hissing Wastes tomorrow. And when she returned, they would begin to plan an assault on Corypheus’ forces in the Arbor Wilds. The thought had brought back the nightmares about Adamant and how differently it could have ended.

“It’s okay, darling. I’m all right now,” he murmured into Marie’s hair. 

The little girl pulled back, pushing a stray lock of ginger hair from her face. She must have spent the morning in the gardens with her tutor, because there was a smudge of earth on her cheek. “You had a nightmare?”

“I did, pup. But it was just a bad dream. It’s okay now.” His heart rate was returning to normal, his breathing had evened out. All he could hope for now was that Marie wouldn’t tell her mother. The last thing he needed was Vastra drugging him to sleep. Again.

“Was it about the monsters under the bed?”

Where had that come from? He knew she had nightmares about her father dying in the explosion at the Conclave occasionally, but those had eased the longer they had been at Skyhold. “No, pup. It was just a bad memory. No monsters.”

She moved away from him to kneel by the bed he and Saibra shared. “Do you know what mama says about monsters under the bed?” she asked solemnly.

“No.” He stood and moved to crouch next to her, intrigued now. 

“She says that sometimes they’re more afraid of us than we are of them, and if we don’t scare them, they will protect us from bad dreams.” She stuck her head under the bed. “Ser Monster? I can’t see you but I know you’re there. My name’s Marie. This is my Uncle Cully.” She pulled her head out from under the bed. “Say ‘hi’, Uncle Cully,” she ordered him.

Bemused, Cullen did as she asked. Marie beamed at him before ducking to look under the bed again. “He’s just moved in here with Auntie Sai. You know her. She’s lived here for ages. I know he looks scary, but he’s nice really. Could you keep away his bad dreams, please, Ser Monster? Thank you.” She pulled her head back out again and stood up. “There. Now you’ve made friends with him, you won’t have any more bad dreams.”

Cullen laughed as he stood. “Thank you, pup.” Surprisingly, he did feel much better. The trust and faith of a little girl was a better tonic than any amount of reflection and introspection he had done over the past few days. “Now, we should get on with your lesson before your mother catches us both slacking. What do you know about the Second Blight?”


End file.
